This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Contact: AtlanticYardsReport[at]hotmail.com

After all, FCR stopped work halfway through the construction process of the Beekman Tower in lower Manhattan, what the New York Times calls an effort to "desperately sought to cut costs on the project."

The key: a cut in labor costs and cheaper construction materials and appliances. Among the other projects helped by a new agreement with unions is the tower under construction at 80 DeKalb Avenue.

Depends on the price

While proponents of the new agreement say it's worth a 20% discount, the Times suggests that's under debate:Still, some developers say the agreement is worth far less, perhaps only 8 percent in savings, and not enough to get some stalled projects moving again, especially in cases where they paid high prices for land.

“God bless them,” said Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York. “But I don’t think they’re going to save much money.”

That would seem to bode well for Atlantic Yards, given that land was not so costly.

The city gave Forest City Ratner $100 million for land acquisition and it looks like the developer will not have to pay (at least at first) the MTA the $100 million it pledged for the Vanderbilt Yard. And that $100 million was less than half the appraisal of $214.5 million.